General Information

After perfectly disguising the dog's corpse, he put it back in the kennel and waited for someone to come home and discover it.

Bai Ge believed that unless a forensic doctor examined it, no one could determine the real cause of death.

In his imaginary world, he was the absolute ruler. He had forcibly disguised the dog's corpse as a sudden death by shaping its muscles and fur.

As for the stone in its esophagus, ordinary people generally would not investigate too deeply.

The reason a forensic doctor might discover it was that Bai Ge was not a medical professional, after all. He was not confident he could perfectly disguise death by choking.

The natural laws of the imaginary world partly came from his knowledge and partly from pure imagination.

Here, if he said a dog's physiological structure was like this, then it was like this.

But the real world would not indulge him.

Fantasy and reality were connected through Bai Ge, but the products of fantasy were not acknowledged by reality.

Bai Ge had already figured this out. Scientific laws and natural laws were not universally applicable.

One was his imagination, and the other was objective fact in reality.

Still, there were some things that were universal.

Art, for one—and perhaps philosophy as well.

Philosophy was invisible and intangible. Bai Ge could treat it as meaningless, leaving only art.

Beautiful things were beautiful everywhere. Whether something looked good still depended on the viewer.

Music, paintings, sculptures, and so on...

Those things would not become ugly just because they entered the real world.

Bai Ge did not necessarily have to set every detail of the entire imaginary world.

Most of the time, he only needed to establish a general outline. After that, the imaginary world itself would fill in the details.

For the most part, those details were constructed spontaneously according to Bai Ge's subconscious.

Take the cultivation planet that had nearly been blown apart, for example. It was pure fantasy and completely unrealistic, but because Bai Ge believed it was real, it was real.

However, the civilization on that planet was a genuine civilization, containing countless details and an enormous amount of information.

Bai Ge certainly had not gone to the trouble of setting all those details.

They had filled themselves in back then. The source of the fantasy was all kinds of novels, news, and other information from Bai Ge's memories.

There were also details that had "evolved" according to the logic of Bai Ge's subconscious. Some of those evolutionary details were things even Bai Ge's own conscious thoughts could not accomplish.

"The many magnificent and splendid sights in this world would still be breathtaking even to people from reality."

"Can I use this to make movies? Record the real lives here and make money..."

"Fine. In theory, it's feasible, but making money wouldn't be that simple."

The reason was simple. Bai Ge did not believe reality would really be like the novels described, where he could upload videos online, communicate through the internet, collect money under a fake name, and avoid attracting covetous eyes or trouble.

And once he used this to make a profit, how would he explain the origins of the people in the videos?

If he never showed his face or revealed his real information, and the videos were so astonishingly magnificent, how could he safely collect the money? He did not know how to hack well enough to keep people from finding him.

Money was not that easy to take.

Bai Ge was an adult. He did not like placing too much faith in luck.

"Art... Heh. Do I really have to become a material processor for the real world?"

Bai Ge left the villa, found a noodle shop outside, and ate a meal, downing three bowls of noodles in a row.

"I didn't expect that altering real-world matter would also consume energy..."

Bai Ge had discovered the energy consumption while altering the vicious dog's corpse.

After finishing the corpse, his stomach had become ravenously hungry, and his body felt weak.

The situation was somewhat abnormal. It had happened right after he finished manipulating the vicious dog's corpse, and there was no reason for him to suddenly become so hungry.

"Humans replenish the energy their bodies need by eating, so when I use this ability, I'm consuming energy from inside my body?"

"No, that's not right. I used it so frequently before, and nothing happened. I guess this feeling only appears when I affect matter in reality..."

Clearly, simply ruling the imaginary world consumed nothing. Bai Ge could do whatever he wanted there.

Real-world matter was different. Using the authority of the imaginary world to affect it out of thin air came with a cost.

"This is such a headache... If that's the case, why was I thinking about building a super processing plant? How much could I alter even if I ate nonstop all day?"

"Forget it. I'll think about it later! First, I need to get the remaining payment from Manager Chen."

It was ten o'clock at night when Bai Ge finally returned home.

Aside from getting a rabies shot,

he had also handed the item to Manager Chen's people and received ten thousand yuan in remaining payment, on top of the generous ten-thousand-yuan deposit he had received earlier.

In just half a day, Bai Ge had done one job and earned twenty thousand yuan.

Of course, Bai Ge was not stupid. If this matter were exposed, Manager Chen had plenty of ways to withdraw safely, but Bai Ge would be in deep trouble.

As someone who had once majored in criminal investigation, Bai Ge would never underestimate the police.

That thing could not remain in someone else's home forever, or it would eventually be discovered.

When that happened, he would have to make another trip to retrieve it.

"What a pain! A million yuan... I don't even know how long I can live. How am I supposed to earn that much?"

Bai Ge lay on the bed to rest, but he could not fall asleep. Tossing and turning, he could not resist continuing to study his so-called superpower.

"There are no useless abilities, only useless users. I don't know how many books I've read that said that... Sigh, hopefully that's true."

His mind sank into the imaginary world. This time, only his consciousness wandered there while his body obediently lay on the bed, so time could pass at a different rate.

After wandering around for what amounted to two days in the imaginary world, Bai Ge decided to do something.

"Create an authority second only to mine to help me manage everything here..."

He had this thought because Bai Ge had discovered that he was actually not as capable as his own subconscious.

He had toured hundreds of universes, and the deepest impression they had left on him was one word: real!

The details were too complete. Even extremely bizarre and fantastical worldviews operated in a convincing manner, almost as if they were real...

And all of this had been generated by the universes themselves based on his subconscious.

However, after staying in the imaginary world for too long, his conscious mind could easily destroy its rules and existing harmony.

The reason was simple. It was difficult for human thought to forcibly "not think" about something or maintain a certain fantasy for a long time.

Sometimes, the more Bai Ge did not want to think about something, the more he thought about it.

His thoughts were not the problem. The world was the one that suffered...

Especially with imagined settings. He might have thought of something one way a few minutes ago, only for his thoughts to drift away when he was not paying attention... and that "objective setting" would change as well.

For example, he had initially decided that tribulation transcendence would have only nine levels. After surviving nine bolts of heavenly lightning, one would undergo Ethereal Ascension.

But somehow, a strange thought had struck him... After wandering around for a while, he had suddenly thought: What about ninety-nine levels?

Thus, tribulation transcendence had ninety-nine levels. That was now the truth...

He could not even stop thinking about it, causing the universe's rules to shift according to his whims.

Of course, he could change them back afterward.

But because of this, Bai Ge increasingly felt that the imaginary world was becoming more and more meaningless to him.

"Mm, I'll establish a second ruler of the imaginary world. It doesn't need emotions; it will only be a tool. It just needs to obey me."

"It will also possess the authority to establish everything, responsible for maintaining the rules of the existing multiverse, like the Great Dao... No one except me may interfere with it. In addition, whenever I interfere with a setting, it will automatically intercept me. Only after I confirm it again will it implement the change through me."

"However, I possess the authority to revoke its authority. This setting takes precedence over everything."

"On this basis, I'll add one more rule: its authority to 'confirm and remind' takes precedence over my 'whimsical thoughts.'"

Although he had solemnly established these rules, Bai Ge knew that if he truly wanted to, he could still treat them as nothing.

But this was actually a way to suppress his own wild thoughts. As long as the urgency behind any setting he made in the future was not greater than that of the rules he had established now, those wild thoughts would genuinely be intercepted by the second ruler instead of being implemented immediately.

When two mutually contradictory settings existed, it would depend on which one Bai Ge took more seriously.

Clearly, his current intention to create this tool was far more serious and earnest than any thoughts that might drift through his mind in the future.

"You'll be called... Bell."

"I've given you characteristics like the Great Dao. You should have absolute computational power and logical deduction. Come, come... I'll find a problem for you to solve."

Bai Ge had to determine what could be universally applied. He already knew art was one such thing, so there had to be others.

Logic, for example.

Bai Ge opened his computer and searched online for a mathematics problem even he could not solve.

Mathematical logic was the foundation of all scientific laws. If even that was not universal, then there was no point dreaming about technology.

If he brought out the imaginary world's faster-than-light travel technology, it would probably be... complete nonsense in real society!

Still, Bai Ge would not be satisfied without trying.

"Here, this is an advanced mathematics problem. I can't solve it. If you can..." Bai Ge brought in a sheet of paper covered in mathematical symbols, but before he could finish speaking, Bell answered him.

"I can't."

"..."

Bai Ge smiled bitterly and unwillingly said, "You're the Great Dao! You can't solve even this?"

"I can give a self-consistent answer... relative to the settings of certain universes..." Bell replied.

"What use is a self-deceiving answer?" Bai Ge knew what it meant and was both amused and exasperated.

But then he thought of something and asked, "Wait... You can deduce an answer based on the fundamental settings of a universe?"

Bell said, "I know all the rules and laws of the imaginary world, so I can provide a relatively correct answer."

Bai Ge's eyes lit up. "What if you knew some of the laws of the real world?"

"If those laws are enough to solve this problem, then I can," Bell replied.

Bai Ge smiled, and his consciousness returned to reality.

He began downloading large amounts of basic knowledge online. He did not use entries from Baidu Baike, instead specifically choosing more authoritative sources.

The laws humanity had summarized so far were not necessarily eternally applicable, and some might even be wrong, but they could at least solve the problems humanity had solved up to now.

And if Bell recorded every law known to humanity, that meant that any problem humanity could solve, Bell could solve as well.

"So that's how it works. This is the correct way to use it!"

Bai Ge did not sleep either. He searched online for authoritative materials without needing to organize them much.

They just could not be things some idiot had posted online after only half-understanding them... This was also why he did not choose Baidu Baike.

"This is such a hassle..."

Several hours later, Bai Ge stared at the webpages until his eyes blurred.

It was the first time he had realized that searching for knowledge online could be so exhausting. In the past, whenever he did not know something, he thought a quick online search would solve the problem. But if he really wanted to find sufficiently authoritative, detailed, and in-depth materials, it was as difficult as reaching the heavens.

After five hours, he had finally filled his portable hard drive. Yet he knew that this was only a drop in the ocean of human knowledge—or rather, not even a drop.

He temporarily stopped searching and carried the hard drive into the imaginary world. Bai Ge knew the road ahead was long.

If one person had to do it, this was a gigantic project...

"The answer has been solved, relative to the mathematical laws you provided..."

Bai Ge did not even need to look. After Bell finished speaking, he memorized the answer in an instant.

That super-fast memory made him pause, and he once again realized something.

"Do I have a super memory now?"

Bell answered on his own. "I am the one who remembers all this, but you are the absolute and supreme ruler here. What I know is equivalent to what you know."

Bai Ge had actually realized this himself halfway through Bell's explanation.

"I understand... The second universally applicable thing is learning... No, to be precise, it should be information!"

"No, no. Information from the imaginary world is not universally applicable in reality. Information... is only unidirectionally universal... from higher to lower..."

"All my ideologies come from real society, and all my settings here are based on that."

"Alas, if only it could work in reverse... If the settings of fantasy could be acknowledged by reality, that would be great. If I could accomplish that, I would essentially become a Setting Weaver of reality, the absolute ruler of objective definitions."

Bai Ge shook his head, feeling that it was impossible.

If that were possible, would he not be invincible?

"What am I thinking? I can't even keep my own life..."

At this point, Bell spoke up again. "Do you need to confirm something?"

"Confirm? You mean... the brain cancer?" Bai Ge was stunned.

Bell said, "If you think about it carefully, you can figure it out as well. You can only be smarter than me, and anything I can realize, you can realize too. The only difference is that I can think about an unlimited number of things simultaneously."

Bai Ge lowered his head in thought and quickly understood.

"Can I... alter myself? Even if it's only my appearance?"

"That is correct. You only need to expend a little energy to look inside yourself. Whether you have a brain tumor will be immediately obvious."

Bai Ge hurriedly brought his body in. With a thought, he indeed saw his own brain clearly.

The rule that prevented him from affecting living things in reality did not apply to himself... That was obvious. Otherwise, he would not have been able to teleport or otherwise affect his own body at will from the beginning.

After seeing the state of the brain inside his skull, Bai Ge discovered... Where was the shadow?

It was a perfectly normal and healthy brain!

There was no tumor, nor any strange brain tissue. The shadow he had seen before simply did not exist now.

"Had the MRI made a mistake?" Bai Ge was overjoyed. It turned out he did not have a terminal illness!

"But I really did suddenly faint for no reason that day. Then I... had a lucid dream! That was how I came here!"

"I understand! I awakened the imaginary world at that time..."

Afterward, Bai Ge became confused again.

"Why? Was it for no reason?"

Bell spoke up. "I must tell you something that I know, but you do not."

Then Bai Ge immediately learned it, sharing the relevant information in an instant.

"What? What is this thing?"